The Phoenix
by PandaEyedDetective
Summary: When Scarlett Willians is chosen for the Hunger Ganes, her life is torn apart. She knows that there must be a way out, but her time is short, and one mistake could be fatal.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so this is my first ever attempt at a fanfic. I hope it's alright, constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated :)**

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Scarlett Williams sighed heavily as she tied off the bandage that covered the last of a series of deep scratches that ran down Fala's arm. "What was it this time?" She asked her friend as she tidied away the array of medical supplies.

"You know I can't tell you Scarley" Fala smirked. "Not till you're nineteen anyway"

"Must have been pretty bad though" Scarlett said, plopping down on the hospital bed beside Fala.

"Yeah, the capitol wants it to be bloody this year, it being the ninety ninth and all" Fala replied. A feeling of worry crossed her mind. She didn't know what she would do if Scarlett was reaped. She was seventeen and her name had to be in there about fourty times.

Seeing Fala's worry, Scarlett smiled reassuringly. "Relax Fala, I'm not gonna get reaped" she said, not quite beleiving it herself. "Half the district has more tesserae then me"

"I know, but last year that girl only had her name in once and she was chosen"

"Fala, trust me" Scarlett smiled. "It won't be me"

Fala smiled back, grabbing her bag from the desk. "Come on then, we'd better get ready"

"Rooftops again?" asked Scarlett, glancing outside to see the streets packed with people.

"Of course" grinned Fala, leading the way to the skylight in the hallway that the pair had used so many times before. Fala leapt up and grabbed the handle, pulling it down and causing the glass to seing down with her. In an instant, she had scrambled up onto the roof, closely followed by Scarlett, who closed the skylight behind her.

The two girls jogged across the rooftop of district five's research center cross hospital, leaping to the next roof as they reached the end. Scarlett felt happy as she ran and jumped. When she was flying across the rooftops she felt so free. Like a bird, looking down at the slow pedestrians and laughing from the sky.

Fala and Scarlett went their seperate ways after about five minutes. Fala running across the rooftops to her apartment building a few blocks away while Scarlett climbed the drainpipe and scrambled onto the ledge outside her window, quickly unlocking it and clambering inside.

She closed the window, glad to be away from the noise and fumes from her districts many power plants.

"Mom, Dad, Mira? You guys at home?" called Scarlett, deciding that they had already gone to the reapings after receiving no answer.

She quickly changed out of her labcoat into a floaty green shirt that matched her emerald eyes, and a pair of denim shorts with black tights. She wasn't the sort to wear dresses, and avoided them as much as possible. Her mother often joked that she'd most likely get married in jeans and a hoodie.

Scarlett smiled as she looked in the mirror that hung over her desk. Her dark red hair was, as usual, an unruly mass of curls, so she tied it back in a ponytail to make it look at least somewhat presentable. She supposed she was somewhat pretty, not drop dead gorgeous but definatly not ugly. She would call her appearance average, the only thing that really stood out was her fire coloured hair, but even that was usually untamable. She sighed, slipping on a pair of black boots and heading out of her room.

As an afterthought, she grabbed the golden phoenix knecklace from her bedside table. It had been given to her by her grandmother, passed down through the generations from the days before Panem. The pendant was a phoenix, it's eyes glistening rubies and it's wings spread as if about to take off. It had always reminded Scarlett of herself in a way, how she often wished she could just take off and leave her boring world behind.


	2. Chapter 2

Scarlett decided to walk to the reapings rather then jump across the rooftops. She was in no hurry to get there, who would want to hurry when two children would be sent to die? In district five, the word tribute was synonomous with the word corpse. Children of district five were often malnourished, weak and sickly and rarely made it past the bloodbath. Their only living victor was Amaya Kane, a woman in her late twenties who had become rather cynical in the eleven years since her victory. The rumours were that she had all but given up on any of her tributes ever making it to the final eight, let alone winning.

Basically, once your name was called, you'd better start picking out a coffin. Thought Scarlett as she aproached the square where the reapings were held each year. As she waited in the queue to get her name checked off by the peacekeeper, her eyes scanned the square for her friends and family. She could see Fala standing close to her parents, worried looks across all of their faces. A little way away from them, Mira - her younger sister- stood in the fourteen year olds section, absent mindedly twirling a strand of her chocolate brown hair as she waited calmly for the reapings to begin.

When Scarlett reached the front of the line, she gave the peacekeeper on duty a death glare as he pricked her finger with the needle and let a drop of blood fall onto the paper beside her name. She hated needles. As the scanner confirmed that it was indeed her, she walked over to the seventeen year olds section and stood among the crowd of girls, most of whom she vaguely recognised from school. Scarlett wasn't really the type to have a large ammount of friends. Her only real friends were Fala, and Carson, a boy from her school whom she had grown close to over the years. The two shared their love of danger and reckless atitude, and often went cliff diving together in the summer. The only problem with their friendship was that Fala despised him. His father was the head peacekeeper, and a year ago he had ordered Fala's mother to be executed for stealing some food from the bakery. Scarlett didn't hold that against Carson though, she could see that he was a completely different person to his father.

She caught Carson's eye as the escort started her speach and smiled reassuringly at him. He returned the smile, but she could see that he was worried. As the mayor took the stage, Scarlett shuffled through the tightly packed crowd, earning a few death glares as she made her way over to her friend. Just as the mayor finished his speach, she reached the barrier that seperated the boys from the girls, slipping her hand through the railings and taking Carson's as the escort stood up to choose the girls name.

His hand tightened around hers and she knew what he was thinking. This year there were three people close to him who could be chosen. Herself, his brother, and Faith, a girl who worked alongside Scarlett in the hospital. Carson had been in love with her for years now, though the only person he'd told was Scarlett. He was worried that she'd hate him because of his father, and Scarlett knew that he couldn't take it if she pushed him away.

Scarlett closed her eyes as the escort made her way over to the reaping ball. It won't be me, it won't be me. She repeated the words over and over in her head as the escort skewered a slip of paper with her talon like nails and unfolded it.

"Scarlett Williams" she called.

"Oh shit!" Scarlett yelled, earning laughter from a few people.

She pried her hand away from Carson's, seeing his horrified expression as he watched her go.

It felt like eternity passed by as she walked to the stage. The entire district was staring at her and it made her feel nervous. She wanted to yell at them to leave her alone, but what good would that do? Her fate was already sealed. When she reached the stage she gave the overzealous escort a death glare, this was all her fault anyway.

"Fabulous!" grinned the escort, skipping over to the boys reaping ball. "And now, the lucky boy who will be joining Miss Scarlett is..." She swirled her hand around in the reaping bowl, eventually selecting a name and withdrawing her hand. "Victor Steele!" she called, glanceibg around for the unfortunate boy.

The entire district went silent. Everyone knew who Victor Steele was. Two years ago, he had murdered three peacekeepers in cold blood. No one knew why, he had never talked about it. He had been in prison ever since, only leaving the confines of his cell once a year on reaping day.

"Oh geez, I'm dead" Scarlett said without thinkng, causing laughter from most of the district. Victor glared at her as he reached the stage, and Scarlett backed away slightly.

"What fantastic tributes!" squealed the escort, gesturing for them to shake hands.

Scarlett's eyes met Victor's cold glare as they shook hands. But she just smiled back at him, decidind that she wouldn't let his hostility get to her.

As the two tributes left the stage, Scarlett knew that she would never be coming back.


End file.
